Using Social Media Data To Define Boundaries of City Centers: the Case of İzmit by Foursquare

Abstract

Social media has significant potential as a data source for spatial studies. The aim of this study is to determine the boundaries of the central area of Kocaeli using location-based social media data and to assess the accuracy of the method by comparing it with the central point in the existing zoning plan. In this context, the concept of city center has been emphasized and theories related to city centers have been explained. Additionally, concepts related to social media, which has recently started to be used as a data source in planning, have been explained, and examples of spatial studies conducted using this data have been presented. The district of Izmit in Kocaeli has been chosen as the study area. For the study, location-based point data was obtained using the Foursquare API. Based on literature research conducted within the Foursquare developer community, uses that are densely located in the centers have been identified, and these categories of spaces have been selected for practical application. Geographic location data belonging to these categories has been mapped, and density analyses have been conducted using GIS tools. Subsequently, spatial analyses have been overlaid and examined holistically. By superimposing the generated density maps, the boundaries of the city center have been determined. To demonstrate the representational capability of social media data in defining the central boundaries, the relationship between Foursquare data and the central point in the Izmit zoning plans has been examined through mapping and correlation analysis.